I worked at The Monroe Evening News booth at the Monroe County Fair Wednesday night – doing double duty as a newspaper employee and as part of the BlogsMonroe team that had a meet-and-greet.

I took my own advice (of course!) by parking in the free lot and bringing my own two water bottles. I also tried to check out as many vendor booths as possible to pick up fliers or get information about local services and resources. I only got through about half the vendor building, but I do have another assignment to the fairgrounds today so I’ll finish the loop then.

I’m not riding any rides this year, but I was impressed with the selection of rides on the midway.

Now here is something I noticed: the food vendors are aiming their promotions at budget-watching families. I saw signs on several concession stands of $1 off food, today’s specials, etc. The water bottles cost only $1 at many places – which is very low compared to what you’d pay at other events.

My dinner before my work shift was a $4 waffle cone from Independent Dairy and this fish and chips basket for $5. One of my friends passed by when I was munching on the fish, and said that’s what she planned to have for dinner too.